Most conventional gardening books assume that everyone experiences the same conditions in their garden, no matter where they live, but this is seldom the reality. Coastal Gardening in South Africa sets out to offer advice to gardeners who live in coastal suburbs, towns and villages, where strong winds, salt-laden air and, often, high humidity, can play havoc with your planting scheme. Many plants that grow happily on the Highveld, for example, or in the leafy suburbs, shrivel and die when exposed to wind-borne salt or harsh light reflected off the sea. But this does not mean that coastal gardens have to be bleak and boring; quite the contrary, in fact. The key is to understand your immediate environment and choose plants that will flourish in those conditions. Coastal Gardening in South Africa is a guide to creating a thriving garden, whether you live on the arid ‘Weskus’, subtropical KZN or anywhere inbetween.

Plants that are indigenous to an area do not need additional watering; they are automatically adapted to the prevailing climate and weather conditions and are able to thrive under all but the most exceptional of circumstances. Gardening in harmony with nature means no longer having to provide the soil conditions and amount of water that non-indigenous species require. Waterwise Gardening in South Africa and Namibia is aimed at anyone who wants to create a new garden or convert an existing one to waterwise principles. The first part of the book focuses on general horticultural practises, such as creating the right type of garden for your climate and the best time to plant or prune. Part two details various garden types, based on South Africa's vegetation regions: Fynbos, Strandveld-fynbos and Succulent Karoo for the winter rainfall areas; Highveld, Bushveld, Thicket and Karoo for the summer rainfall regions. The forests and coastal belt of the Indian Ocean seaboard are covered, as are the Namib and adjacent desert areas, and indigenous indoor plants. For each region, representative lists of plant species are presented in categories such as trees, shrubs, perennials, architectural plants, succulents etc, with notes on plant form, height and growth rate, flower colour, months in flower and whether they prefer sun or shade.

A seaside garden has special challenges: the combination of sun, salt air, and tricky soil can thwart even the most determined gardener. This practical guide shows exactly how to achieve success, from initial planning and design through full flowering and maintenance. It shows which plants and planting strategies work best for the coastal microclimate, and offers plenty of tips for windswept and very dry areas; proven advice for container gardening; and plans for a range of attractive, easy-to-maintain gardens, from manicured and elegant to lush and exotic.

Create a beautiful and practical coastal garden with this inspiring and comprehensive guide. The seaside can be a stunning setting for a garden, but it can be difficult to find plants that will thrive. Salt-laden winds make the careful selection of plants and landscaping materials vital. This book provides a step-by-step process, as used by professional garden designers, that will help you design, build and plant a beautiful, sustainable and successful garden in these conditions. From initial inspiration to planting and styling techniques, Designing and Creating a Coastal Garden will show you how to create your dream garden by the sea. The coast is a special place for so many of us. The quality of light and air, and the sense of space and freedom, have an irresistible draw on artists and holidaymakers. Those who make their homes by or near sea can feel very privileged to do so. A walk along an exposed sea front in a coastal town will usually reveal front gardens with battered specimens of the same few, not very exciting shrubs and trees. One could be forgiven for giving up on the idea of a coastal garden. But there is no need to despair. This book will show you, step-by-step, how to create a beautiful and practical seaside garden. Gardens evolve over the seasons and over the years with tweaks and experiments, as the gardener's taste and understanding of the garden develops. But a lot of frustration, disappointment and wasted money can be avoided by starting with a good design. And for no type of garden is this truer than for a coastal garden. Designing and Creating a Coastal Garden shows how, beginner or experienced, you can design a garden that will work practically, beautifully and harmoniously with a seaside setting. Detailed advice is given on what plants and what landscaping materials work best on the coast, as well as horticultural techniques and sample planting plans. It is also incredibly rewarding to create habitats and observe the wildlife in a garden. This book shows how to take inspiration from the type of coastal habitat found near a garden both for style and for successful gardening for wildlife. Whatever the scale of your project, from improving a tiny corner, to a major whole-garden restyle, this book will help you create a wonderful garden by the sea.

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A visual sourcebook offers ways to use perennials in any setting for creative gardens year round.

Designing a garden by the sea poses special problems for the designer. High winds and salt spray can wreak havoc with planting schemes, and the need to provide sheltered areas for sitting and entertaining may be difficult to achieve. On the positive side, the proximity of the sea greatly reduces the chances of damaging spring frosts, so the designer may choose from a far wider palette of plants than is possible further inland, including the exotic and sub-tropical species currently in vogue. A balance between providing sufficient shelter to satisfy the client's needs and allowing views to the sea to be maintained and enhanced, is the challenge facing every designer. The book explains the particular process of analysis needed for maritime environments, the effects of wind and salt spray and the microclimates created by sea and wind. The establishment and maintenance of shelter belts is fully explained, together with practical information about the choice and implementation of planting schemes. A suggested list of suitable plants for windswept sites is included. Each chapter is accompanied by case studies of actual coastal gardens.

Dry summer, wet winter climate? This is your must have plant guide. Selecting plants suited to your climate is the first step toward a thriving, largely self-sustaining garden that connects with and supports the natural world. With gentle and compelling text and stunning photographs of plants in garden settings, Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates by Nora Harlow and Saxon Holt is a guide to native and climate-adapted plants for summer-dry, winter-wet climates of North America's Pacific coast. Knowing what these climates share and how and why they differ, you can choose to make gardens that maintain and expand local and regional biodiversity, take little from the earth that is not returned, and welcome and accommodate the presence of wildlife. With global warming, it is now even more critical that we garden in tune with climate.

The European Garden Flora is the definitive manual for the accurate identification of cultivated ornamental flowering plants. Designed to meet the highest scientific standards, the vocabulary has nevertheless been kept as uncomplicated as possible so that the work is fully accessible to the informed gardener as well as to the professional botanist. This new edition has been thoroughly reorganised and revised, bringing it into line with modern taxonomic knowledge. Although European in name, the Flora covers plants cultivated in most areas of the United States and Canada as well as in non-tropical parts of Asia and Australasia. Volume 2 contains accounts of the first 71 families of Dicotyledons, including the Aizoaceae and Cactaceae (large and important families of succulents), as well as many tree families (Juglandaceae, Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Ulmaceae) and popular herbaceous plants (Ranunculaceae, Papaveraceae, Cruciferae).

Coastal Plants provides a definitive guide to the 100 most common plants of the Perth coastal region and includes the key species used in coastal restoration. Each species is presented with its Latin name, common name and family, together with its distribution, key diagnostic features, natural history, pollination, uses in restoration and propagation. The description for each species is accompanied by a distribution map and diagnostic photographs of the whole plant, flowers, seeds and fruits. Coastal Plants also contains introductory chapters on the biology and ecology of the coastal plants, their biogeography, and practical approaches to the restoration of coastal dune vegetation.